4.2 A leader and power

leader and not even the crisis which the movement has experienced has shaken its foundations or succeeded in shattering the solidarity and unity of its members, ‛ writes Erik Sollerman.

20

The Pentecostal Pastor, Sven Jonasson, writes about Lewi Pethrus: ‚He has been the Messenger in his day and I do not think we need to worry about the future. Above all we have a remarkably strong sense of our calling‛. In the same interview another Pentecostal Pastor, Bo Hörnberg, goes on to say ‚Lewi Pethrus is a man sent by God for a time such as ours ... His office was given to him by God and the Pentecostal Revival should be led by men who have received such a divine spiritual calling. ... Successors are appointed by God.‛21

4.2 A leader and power

Two of Lewi Pethrus ' former co-workers, Pastor A.P. Franklin and the author Sven Lidman, present him as a power-hungry and almost ruthless leader.22 Lidman had been editor of the Evangelii Härold for 26 years. When it became evident that the relationship between the two men had reached a critical point, the board of the Philadelphia Publishing House Ltd. decided that ‚Pethrus should take over all proof readings.‛23 One of the former reporters at the Dagen, Bobby Andström, writes in this connection, ‚if anyone opposed anything or reported different views Pethrus made clever manoeuvres making his opponents main argument his own most forceful weapon. This situation has always made a reasonable debate within the Pentecostal Movement more complicated. ‛ To Lewi Pethrus Dagen became ‚an important instrument of power‛. Andström continues, ‚from his position as chief editor he (Lewi Pethrus) could direct the opinion within the movement and in a very real way direct the decisions that were going to be made at the great gatherings of the movement in Stockholm, Nyhem and Husbondliden. Individuals and Pastors with deviating views had to acquiesce in the situation of being publicly reproved without any possibility of defending themselves in the same

_________________ 20 Svenska Morgonbladet 22.7.57, Sollerman, Erik (teacher and editor in Örebro Mission

Society). 21 Svenska Dagbladet 13.3.67, Sven Jonasson and Bo Hörnberg interviewed. 22 Franklin 1930. Lidman 1949. 23 Pethrus 1953a, p. 68. Compare Lidman 1949.